How to pick a perfect WooCommerce reviews plugin for your store

Buying from online stores is becoming increasingly popular among modern consumers. 

The eCommerce sector is growing by 23% every year, WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, power 7% of all the eCommerce sites on the Internet according to BuiltWith.

Now if you ask yourself, last time when you want to purchase a watch or a pair of shoes for yourself, what was the first thing that come to your head, I can bet the product reviews and ratings given by past customers!  And if you see 50+ five stars on a product, you tend to trust and proceed to buy it.

In the age of Seller-Beware, the customer has the power to pick and choose the product.

Marketing Land,  says that almost 90% of people say that their buying decisions are influenced by the reviews they read. 

How important are customer reviews in eCommerce?

Increase Revenue: 

Customer reviews and ratings can play the lifeblood of your e-commerce business. If you deliver up to your customer’s expectations, reviews from customers will reflect that. This will bring more new customers, and increase conversion rates, often giving brands a revenue boost. According to Womply businesses can drive 52% more revenue when they have 9 reviews and 108% more if they have 25 reviews.

Rise conversion rate:

When a customer looks for a product to buy, at first they search for the average rating of that product, the number of reviews, detailed reviews with visuals, and how recently reviews were written. Along with the product features, the customer considers these factors when deciding to buy a product from an online store. According to  Northwestern study, just 5 (five) product reviews can increase a customer’s likelihood to purchase by 270% compared to a product without any reviews.

Trust building: 

 Written reviews, ratings, and reviews with photos, and videos are a good source of user-generated content (USG) for your store. This type of user-generated content (UGC) from customers is what shoppers trust most. A survey by Bazaarvoice shows that   78% of shoppers trust reviews, even over family and friend recommendations.

Reviews shape your brand: 

Brand trust is one of the most valuable assets a business can have in today’s retail landscape. One way to build consumer trust is by handing over the mic to their fellow peers to help advocate for your brand. A brand always highlights its features and goodwill, but, honest reviews from the actual customers are the main ones to establish a brand. Positive online reviews and high ratings will make your business look more attractive.

Customers rely on reviews:

Let’s be honest, customers probably won’t believe everything you have to say about your business. reviews reassure potential customers that they can trust your brand, your products, or your services. Up to 84% of consumers noted that reviews were important in their purchasing decisions. Hearing from customers’ past purchase experiences helps to understand whether the product has earlier matched customers’ expectations or not.

Impact on SEO:

Reviews are also one of the biggest factors influencing SEO performance. when customers are searching for an item to purchase, they often start on a search engine like Google. Search engines rank a site when they have new content, and one of the best ways to rank higher is to ensure new reviews are constantly coming in. 83% of shoppers discover new products every month through reviews.

Reviews provide social proof:

In today’s digital era, customer reviews have become one of the most potent forms of social proof. Reviews help determines a consumer’s perception of the product before and after their experience. Create a testimonials page on your WooCommerce site and display the reviews as testimonials, one of the best ways to promote your brand that can attract a large number of potential customers to your website.

Features to be considered while choosing a WooCommerce review plugin.

Review reminder email:

One of the most effective ways to generate new reviews is through a review request email. While sending your review request emails and writing them in a way that individually acknowledges each recipient, the chances of getting feedback from your customers increase. So, the WooCommerce plugin which has a reminder email with edit template options can serve this purpose in a better way. 

Search Engine Land shows that about 70% of customers will leave a product or business review when asked to. You can generate more reviews for your store by sending an automated email to your customer with the link to the product they bought from your store. 

Verified badges ensure the authenticity of the WooCommerce store:

Consumers place a high value on brand transparency these days. They want every interaction to be as authentic as possible, and that includes reviews. Shoppers are concerned about fake reviews, with 54% saying they won’t purchase a product if perceive a review to be fraudulent. A verified purchase badge can play the main role in such a scenario. The verified badge is proof that the reviews are authentic. So the WooCommerce plugin has a verified or trust badge option that can differentiate fake and authentic reviews.

Coupon for review:

Coupons encourage your customers to write product reviews. Offering coupons for review is a great way to make first customers repeat customers, now if your WooCommerce review plugin has the feature, it will give you that advantage.

In such a scenario once your customer leaves a review, the system will automatically send an email with a discount coupon code. It will Increase your review numbers and engage your customers, drive repeat purchases, up-sells, and new sales.

Giving reviews with more flexibility:

A product review is not always about the product features, it can be price, sales support, delivery time etc, if your WooCommerc store has the option, where customers can leave reviews on different criteria, it will be an excellent way to express the exact experience of a product bu your customers. And it also has a bright side for the store owners, based on the poor rating of specific criteria, the owner can take the necessary steps and improve those factors.

Visual User-Generated Content.

Written reviews can be convincing but photo reviews can bring products to another level. By displaying product images with reviews, potential customers can have a better understanding of what they will get. Photos & videos with reviews show the real experience of previous customers, so when choosing the WooCommerce review plugin, the attachment upload option should be a considerable feature. 

Basic review display features 

Review with title, filter reviews for top-low, recent, visuals etc, and a quick search of reviews, such basic features should be available in a WooCommerce review plugin. These user-friendly and more interactive options will encourage customers to leave reviews on your WooCommerce site. 

Responding to reviews:

For creating your e-commerce business more sustainable and long-term existence, relation with your customers is a major factor. Your customers feel the deepest connections with your store when they feel you understand their needs and respond accordingly. 57% will spend more when they feel that connection and 76% will keep shopping with those brands, according to Sprout Social. 

Quick responses will help you run your online business more smoothly and will give momentum to a growing number of positive reviews from customers.  Response from your customer’s reviews, along with thanks, can make the seller-buyer relationship stronger.

Review import-export feature:

While choosing the best WooCommerce rating plugin, you should check which plugin offers ratings and reviews the import-export option in an efficient and quick-mannered way. Earning ratings is a challenging task, and you dont want to lose these hardly earned reviews if you need to migrate your site to another platform. so the WooCommerce plugin, which facilitates online store Admin to export and import product reviews and star ratings from one site to another can play the role according to your needs. 

Promote/ share your reviews.

Social media is a place where brands and customers go to connect. Reviews can be excellent, influential content to share on social media platforms. According to Sprout Social, 64% of consumers say they want brands to connect with them on social media, and 37% expect brands to promote user-generated content (UGC). So review sharing option is a great feature for a good WooCommerce review plugin.

Anti-spam & GDPR compatibility:

Sometimes spam is a nightmare for a WordPress site owner. A huge percentage of reviews in eCommerce may turn out to be spam. reCaptcha option can be a good feature to protect from spam. Now, these days, GDPR is a major concern for your customers, so there should be a consent option while sending reminder emails or collecting reviews from your customers. 

Wrapping up.

Increasing review volume on a product page translates to higher sales and more organic website traffic. Quality reviews not only increase e-commerce sales, but you’ll also stand out from the competition by letting customers know you care about them and their opinion.